


Take a Chance on Me

by iam93percentstardust



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Brief Mentions of Nudity, Dancing, Friendship, Gen, Yule Ball
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-01-25
Updated: 2018-01-25
Packaged: 2019-03-09 08:53:59
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,578
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13477998
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/iam93percentstardust/pseuds/iam93percentstardust
Summary: It wasn’t that Hermione thought she was better than Parvati and Lavender; it was that they had different skills than she did. It was that they thought divination was the end-all be-all and she thought it was hocus pocus. It was that they spent at least an hour each morning doing their makeup and she couldn’t even be bothered to run a brush through her bushy hair. It was that they cared more about the cute boys in their class (Seamus and Dean, according to them) than their schoolwork and Hermione thought that a relationship could wait until she’d graduated with twelve NEWTS.It wasn’t that she thought she was better than her roommates; it was just that, well, sometimes she did think so.





	Take a Chance on Me

It wasn’t that Hermione thought she was better than Parvati and Lavender; it was that they had different skills than she did. It was that they thought divination was the end-all be-all and she thought it was hocus pocus. It was that they spent at least an hour each morning doing their makeup and she couldn’t even be bothered to run a brush through her bushy hair. It was that they cared more about the cute boys in their class (Seamus and Dean, according to them) than their schoolwork and Hermione thought that a relationship could wait until she’d graduated with twelve NEWTS.

It wasn’t that she thought she was better than her roommates; it was just that, well, sometimes she did think so.

But she had to admit that there were some things that Parvati and Lavender knew about that she had no clue what to do with it and a date to the Yule Ball was one of them. She studied the door to their dormitory, really taking in all the whorls and designs in the wood. She wasn’t procrastinating, not even a little bit. Of course she wasn’t ashamed to ask her roommates for help.

Through the door, she could hear Lavender’s ABBA record. It always surprised her that the half-blood Lavender listened to Muggle music but it was nice to have a little bit of home when she came to Hogwarts.

“Hermione, love,” Lavender called through the door. “Are you going to come in or keep memorizing the archway?”

Sheepishly, Hermione opened the door. The music increased exponentially in volume. She closed the door behind her. Parvati waved her wand at the record player and the music quieted.

“How did you know it was me?” Hermione asked ruefully.

“Please, darling. I heard your footsteps on the stairs ten minutes ago,” Lavender said. “And you only do that when you’re afraid to ask us a question.”

“I promise we won’t bite,” Parvati said graciously, giving Hermione permission to believe that the two girls thought that she was afraid of them.

“You’re right,” she said. “I do have a question.”

Parvati and Lavender exchanged sarcastic glances. Before one of them could make a comment to pair with the glance, Hermione hurriedly continued, “I have a date for the Yule Ball.”

The glance that the two exchanged now was incredulous. Lavender broke into giggles. “Really?”

Hermione wasn’t sure if she should be offended or not. “Yes, really,” she stated.

Parvati narrowed her eyes in suspicion. “Who?” she asked.

“This boy from Durmstrang.” There. That wasn’t a lie. Hermione wasn’t sure she wanted them to know that Viktor Krum had asked her or, more importantly, that she’d said yes.

“What’s his name?” Parvati shot at her.

“Viktor.” Also not technically a lie.

“Last name?”

“I’m not sure.” This was a bit of a stretch but it was sort of true. After all, she hadn’t been able to remember his name after the World Cup. It wasn’t until his name had come out of the Goblet that she’d finally been able to recall it.

Parvati waved for Lavender to stop giggling. “Where’d you meet?”

“The library. He said he liked that I was bookish.”

Parvati’s eyes traveled down Hermione’s form and then back up to her hair. “Well, he certainly didn’t like your figure,” she muttered.

Hermione huffed and crossed her arms. “There are boys out there who like smart girls you know,” she said sharply.

Lavender laughed harshly. “Not many. I think you might have found the only one.”

They were getting off track. “Look, I wanted to ask if you could help me with my hair and makeup for the ball. I’m not good at it and you two are. But if you’re too busy picking apart my date, then I’ll find someone else,” she said loudly. Hermione winced. She hadn’t meant to sound quite so judgmental.

“I just wanted to look pretty for him,” she said in a gentler tone.

Again, Parvati and Lavender exchanged long looks. Hermione wasn’t sure what their silent conversation was saying but finally they looked back at her.

“Did you already buy your dress robes?” Parvati asked. Hermione nodded. Beside her, Lavender conjured a plastic model of Hermione’s head and began toying with the bushy hair. “What do they look like?”

Hermione crossed to her trunk and took out the conservative black velvet dress she’d found at Madam Maulkin’s. She wasn’t particularly in love with the dress but she hadn’t thought she’d have a date at the time.

Parvati stuck out her tongue. “Yuck,” she declared. “That thing is only fit to be burned.”

Silently, Hermione breathed a sigh of relief. She had secretly wanted Parvati to hate it as much as she did. “What should I do?” she asked.

Parvati’s mouth twisted as she looked at the dress. She grabbed it and held it up, folding up part of the hemline. Taking her wand, she slashed it across the bottom of the dress. Half of the skirt dropped away to the floor. Two more slashes and the neckline suddenly plunged. She studied the long sleeves a bit more carefully and instead cut slits in the sleeves from the wrist to the shoulders.

“Strip,” she ordered Hermione.

A little self-consciously, Hermione removed her robes and then held out her hand for the dress. Parvati laughed derisively- “How do you expect me to see how it looks when you’re still dressed?” -and waved her hand for Hermione to take off the rest. Hermione glanced over at Lavender who just raised one eyebrow.

“Don’t look at me,” Lavender said. “I’m on her side.” As Hermione finished undressing, she continued, “Do you style your hair, like ever?”

Hermione, shirt over her head, said in a muffled voice, “No. Should I?”

Lavender shrugged and turned her attention back to the model. Parvati handed the dress over to Hermione without a word. She stepped back and eyed the new dress critically.

“Better,” she said doubtfully. “Lav, what do you think?”

Lavender looked up again. She cocked her head. “I don’t know, Par. I don’t think it’s Yule Ball material. This is Hermione’s Cinderella moment. She needs a better dress.”

Parvati nodded. “Yeah.” She pointed her wand at her trunk. “ _Accio Witch Weekly_.” Neatly, a magazine sailed from the trunk and landed in her hand. She rifled through the pages, explaining absent-mindedly, “They did a special issues of dress robes for the Yule Ball about a month ago.”

She looked up at Hermione again. “Dress off,” she ordered. “I need to see your complexion without anything masking it.”

Hermione rolled her eyes. She didn’t see why Parvati needed to see her complexion. But she followed Parvati’s instructions without further comments.

“Pastels,” Parvati said after a moment’s study. “Pastels would look good on you. I think you’d look good in pink actually.”

Hermione wrinkled her nose. She hated that color. It had such a loaded history and she didn’t see why it had to be the ultimate girly color.

Parvati laughed at Hermione’s expression. “Okay, no pink.” She turned the page and a broad grin spread across her face. “What about blue?”

She turned the magazine so that Hermione could see the dress. Hermione’s breath caught in her throat. The dress was stunning, the kind of dress she dreamed about it, made from a floaty, periwinkle-blue material. Parvati was right: this was the perfect Cinderella moment dress. Wordlessly, she nodded.

“Lav, look at this,” Parvati said gleefully. “Hermione’s speechless.”

Lavender nodded without really paying attention to them. Parvati frowned at her friend’s apathy but she filled out the order form and then handed it to Hermione.

“You need to get this sent off as soon as possible,” she told her.

“Crookshanks can take it to the Owlery for us,” Hermione suggested.

Parvati looked slightly stunned as she leaned past Hermione to look at Crookshanks sprawled across her bed. “And you trust him to do that?”

Hermione nodded. “It’s not the first time.” She handed it to Crookshanks and gave him the order. Crookshanks meowed plaintively and then sauntered out of the room. Parvati watched him go with wide eyes.

“Your hair’s impossible,” Lavender complained. “I can’t do anything with it. Not without using tons of Sleekeazy’s Hair Potion. You wouldn’t mind, would you?”

“I have no idea what that is,” Hermione admitted.

Lavender’s jaw dropped. Parvati looked shocked. “You don’t know what Sleekeazy’s Hair Potion is?” Hermione shook her head. “But-but-how could you not? Fleamont Potter invented it!”

Hermione giggled at the ridiculousness of Fleamont but then the last name hit her. “Fleamont…Potter? As in-?”

Lavender nodded. “Yeah, Harry’s granddad.”

“I didn’t know,” Hermione gasped. “Does Harry know?”

Parvati shrugged. “Doubt it,” she said. “He died before Harry was born.”

“How do you two know about him?”

Lavender smiled patronizingly. “Sweetie,” she said. “It’s Sleekeazy’s Hair Potion. It’s a literal lifesaver. Of course I know its history.” She leaned over to high-five Parvati. “Now come here,” she continued, motioning for Hermione to move closer. “I want to practice on your hair.”

They sat in silence for barely a minute before Parvati turned to music back up so she could start dancing. Hermione sat patiently as Lavender dragged her potion-laced brush through her hair, occasionally checking to see if she’d hurt Hermione. She smiled to herself as she watched Parvati dance around the room. They may not have the same interests but the two really weren’t that bad.


End file.
